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MY MASTER 



BY THE 



SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 



WITH AN APPENDED EXTRACT 

FROM THE 

THEISTIC QUARTERLY REVIEW 



NEW YORK 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

1901 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copies RectivEO 

APR. 22 1901 

COPtROMT ENTRY 

CLASSA.XXC. N*- 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1901, 

BY 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 



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ROBERT DRUMMOND, PRINTER, NEW YORK 



Om Namo Bhagavate Rdmakrishndya 

(Salutation to Blessed Ramakrishna !) 



PREFACE 

THE following lecture, which was delivered 
in New York under the auspices of the 
Vedanta Society, describes briefly one of the 
most remarkable men that India has given to 
the nineteenth century. He was known as 
Paramhamsa Srimat Ramakrishna, and is 
regarded by thousands of his fellow-country- 
men as a Divine Incarnation, although he 
would not claim for himself any high posi- 
tion. The influence of his teachings is mak- 
ing itself felt in all parts of India, and has 
even extended to Europe and America. 

The frontispiece represents the temple near 

which he passed the last years of his life. He 

lived in a small house in the extensive gardens 

surrounding the temple, and great crowds of 

people came to listen to his words. Since 

vii 



PREFACE 

his death a yearly festival has been held on 
the anniversary of his birth, and is each year 
attended by increasing numbers. The title 
Paramhamsa means, literally, " Great Soul," 
and is given by the Hindus to such men only 
as have attained to the highest spiritual illumi- 
nation. Srimat is a title of respect, and is 
used here in the sense of " most revered." 

The Editor. 
viii 



MY MASTER 

u\ \ /HENEVER virtue subsides and vice 
prevails, I come down to help man- 
kind," declares Krishna, in the Bhagavad 
Gita, Whenever this world of ours, on ac- 
count of growth, on account of added cir- 
cumstances, requires a new adjustment, a 
wave of power comes, and as man is acting 
on two planes, the spiritual and the mate- 
rial, waves of adjustment come on both 
planes. On the one side, of adjustment on 
the material plane, Europe has mainly b^en 
the basis during modern times, and of the 
adjustment on the other, the spiritual plane, 
Asia has been the basis throughout the his- 
tory of the world. To-day, man requires 
one more adjustment on the spiritual plane; 
to-day, when material ideas are at the 

9 



MY MASTER 

height of their glory and power; to-day, 
when man is likely to forget his divine na- 
ture, through his growing dependence on 
matter, and is likely to be reduced to a mere 
money-making machine, an adjustment is 
necessary, and the power is coming, the 
voice has spoken, to drive away the clouds 
of gathering materialism. The power has 
been set in motion which, at no distant date, 
will bring unto mankind once more the 
memory of their real nature, and again the 
place from which this power will start will 
be Asia. This world of ours is on the plan 
of the division of labor. It is vain to say 
that one man shall possess everything. Yet 
how childish we are ! The baby in his child- 
ishness thinks that his doll is the only pos- 
session that is to be coveted in this whole 
universe. So a nation which is great in the 
possession of material powers thinks that 
that is all that is to be coveted, that that is 

10 



MY MASTER 

all that is meant by progress, that that is all 
that is meant by civilization, and if there are 
other nations which do not care to possess, 
and do not possess these powers, they are 
not fit to live, their whole existence is use- 
less. On the other hand, another nation 
may think that mere material civilization is 
utterly useless. From the Orient came the 
voice which once told the world that if a 
man possess everything that is under the 
sun or above it, and does not possess spirit- 
uality, what matters it? This is the Orien- 
tal type, the other is the Occidental type. 

Each of these types has its grandeur, 
each has its glory. The present adjustment 
will be the harmonizing, the mingling of 
these two ideals. To the Oriental, the 
world of spirit is as real as to the Occidental 
is the world of senses. In the spiritual, the 
Oriental finds everything he wants or hopes 

for; in it he finds all that makes life real to 

ll 



MY MASTER 

him. To the Occidental he is a dreamer; to 
the Oriental, the Occidental is a dreamer, 
playing with dolls of five minutes, and he 
laughs to think that grown-up men and 
women should make so much of a handful 
of matter which they will have to leave 
sooner or later. Each calls the other a 
dreamer. But the Oriental ideal is as nec- 
essary for the progress of the human race 
as is the Occidental, and I think it is more 
necessary. Machines never made mankind 
happy, and never will make. He who is 
trying to make us believe this, will claim 
that happiness is in the machine, but it is al- 
ways in the mind. It is the man who is 
lord of his mind who alone can become 
happy, and none else. But what, after all, 
is this power of machinery? Why should 
a man who can send a current of electricity 
through a wire be called a very great man, 
and a very intelligent man? Does not na- 

12 



MY MASTER 

ture do a million times more than that every 
moment? Why not then fall down and 
worship nature? What matters it if you 
have power over the whole of the world, if 
you have mastered every atom in the uni- 
verse? That will not make you happy un- 
less you have the power of happiness in 
yourself, until you have conquered yourself. 
Man is born to conquer nature, it is true, 
but the Occidental means by " nature " only 
the physical or external nature. It is true 
that external nature is majestic, with its 
mountains, and oceans, and rivers, and with 
its infinite powers and varieties. Yet there 
is a more majestic internal nature of man, 
higher than the sun, moon and stars, higher 
than this earth of ours, higher than the 
physical universe, transcending these little 
lives of ours; and it affords 'another field of 
study. There the Orientals excel, just as 
the Occidentals excel in the other. There- 

13 



MY MASTER 

fore it is fitting that, whenever there is a 
spiritual adjustment, it should come from 
the Orient. It is also fitting that when the 
Oriental wants to learn about machine-mak- 
ing he should sit at the feet of the Occi- 
dental and learn from him. When the Oc- 
cident wants to learn about the spirit, about 
God, about the soul, about the meaning and 
the mystery of this universe, she must sit at 
the feet of the Orient to learn. 

I am going to present before you the 
life of one man who has been the mover of 
such a wave in India. But before going 
into the life of this man I will try to present 
before you the secret of India, what India 
means. If those whose eyes have been 
blinded by the glamor of material things, 
whose whole dedication of life is to eating 
and drinking and enjoying, whose whole 
ideal of possession is lands and gold, whose 

whole ideal of pleasure is in the sensations, 

14 



MY MASTER 

whose god is money, and whose goal is a 
life of ease and comfort in this world, and 
death after that, whose minds never look 
forward, and who rarely think of anything 
higher than the sense objects in the midst 
of which they live, if such as these go to In- 
dia, what do they see? Poverty, squalor, 
superstition, darkness, hideousness every- 
where. Why? Because in their minds en- 
lightenment means dress, education, social 
politeness. Whereas Occidental nations 
have used every effort to improve their ma- 
terial position, India has done differently. 
There lives the only race in the world 
which, in the whole history of humanity, 
never went beyond their frontiers to con- 
quer anyone, who never coveted that which 
belonged to anyone else, and whose only 
fault was that their lands were so fertile, and 
their wits so keen, that they accumulated 

wealth by the hard labor of their hands, and 

15 



MY MASTER 

so tempted other nations to come and de- 
spoil them. They are contented to be de- 
spoiled, and to be called barbarians, and in 
return they want to send to this world 
visions of the Supreme, to lay bare for the 
world the secrets of human nature, to rend 
the veil that conceals the real man, because 
they know the dream, because they know 
that behind this materialism lives the real 
divine nature of man which no sin can tar- 
nish, no crime can spoil, no lust can kill, 
which the fire cannot burn, nor the water 
wet, which heat cannot dry, nor death kill; 
and to them this true nature of man is as 
real as is any material object to the senses 
of an Occidental. Just as you are brave to 
jump at the mouth of a cannon with a hur- 
rah; just as you are brave in the name of 
patriotism to stand up and give up your 
lives for your country, so are they brave in 

the name of God. There it is that when a 

16 



MY MASTER 

man declares that this is a world of ideas, 
that it is all a dream, he casts off clothes 
and property to demonstrate that what he 
believes and thinks is true. There it is that 
a man sits on the banks of a river, when he 
has known that life is eternal, and wants to 
give up his body just as nothing, just as you 
can give up a bit of straw. Therein lies 
their heroism, ready to face death as a 
brother, because they are convinced that 
there is no death for them. Therein lies the 
strength that has made them invincible 
through hundreds of years of oppression 
and foreign invasions, and foreign tyranny. 
The nation lives to-day, and in that nation 
even in the days of the direst disaster, 
spiritual giants have never failed to arise. 
Asia produces giants in spirituality just as 
the Occident produces giants in politics, 
giants in science. In the beginning of the 

present century, when Western influence 

17 



MY MASTER 

began to pour into India, when Western 
conquerors, with sword in hand, came to 
demonstrate to the children of the sages 
that they were mere barbarians, a race of 
dreamers, that their religion was but my- 
thology, and God and soul and everything 
they had been struggling for, were mere 
words without meaning, that the thousands 
of years of struggle, the thousands of years 
of endless renunciation, had all been in 
vain, the question began to be agitated 
among young men at the universities 
whether the whole national existence up to 
this date had been a failure, if- they must be- 
gin anew on the Occidental plan, tear up 
their old books, burn their philosophies, 
drive away their preachers, and break down 
their temples. 

Did not the Occidental conqueror, the 
man who demonstrated his religion with 
sword and gun, say that all the old ways 

18 



MY MASTER 

were mere superstition and idolatry? Chil- 
dren brought up and educated in the new 
schools started on the Occidental plan, 
drank in these ideas from their childhood 
and it is not to be wondered at that doubts 
arose. But instead of throwing away su- 
perstition and making a real search after 
truth, the test of truth became " What does 
the West say? " The priests must go, the 
Vedas must be burned, because the West 
has said so. Out of the feeling of unrest 
thus produced, there arose a wave of so- 
called reform in India. 

If you wish to be a true reformer, three 
things are necessary. The first is to feel; do 
you really feel for your brothers? Do you 
really feel that there is so much misery in 
the world, so much ignorance and supersti- 
tion? Do you really feel that men are your 
brothers? Does this idea come into your 

whole being? Does it run in your blood? 

19 



MY MASTER 

Does it tingle in your veins? Does it 
course through every nerve and filament of 
your body? Are you full of that idea of 
sympathy? If you are, that is only the first 
step. You must think next if you have 
found any remedy. The old ideas may be 
all superstition, but in ,and around these 
masses of superstition are nuggets of gold 
and truth. Have you discovered means by 
which to keep that gold alone, without any 
of the dross? If you have done that, that is 
only the second step, one more thing is nec- 
essary. What is your motive? Are you 
sure that you are not actuated by greed for 
gold, by thirst for fame, or power? Are you 
really sure that you can stand to your ideals, 
and work on, even if the w T hole world wants 
to crush you down? Are you sure you 
know what you want, and will perform your 
duty, and that alone, even if your life is at 
stake? Are you sure that you will perse- 

20 



MY MASTER 

vere so long as life endures, so long as one 
pulsation in the heart will last? Then you 
are a real reformer, you are a teacher, a 
master, a blessing to mankind! But man is 
so impatient, so short-sighted! He has not 
the patience to wait, he has not the power 
to see. He wants to rule, he wants results 
immediately. Why? He wants to reap 
the fruits himself, and does not really care 
for others. Duty for duty's sake is not 
what he wants. ' To work you have the 
right, but not to the fruits thereof/' says 
Krishna. Why cling to results? Ours are 
the duties. Let the fruits take care of 
themselves. But man has no patience, he 
takes up any scheme and the larger number 
of would-be reformers all over the world, 
can be classed under this heading. 

As I have said, the idea of reform came 
to India when it seemed as if the wave of 
materialism that had invaded her shores 

21 



MY MASTER 

would sweep away the teaching's of the 
Sages. But the nation had borne the 
shocks of a thousand such waves of change. 
This one was mild in comparison. Wave 
after wave had flooded the land, breaking 
and crushing everything for hundreds of 
years; the sword had flashed, and " Victory 
unto Allah " had rent the skies of India, but 
these floods subsided, leaving the national 
ideals unchanged. 

The Indian nation cannot be killed. 
Deathless it stands and it will stand so long 
as that spirit shall remain as the back- 
ground, so long as her people do not give 
up their spirituality. Beggars they may 
remain, poor and poverty-stricken; dirt 
and squalor may surround them perhaps 
throughout all time, but let them not give 
up their God, let them not forget that they 
are the children of the Sages. Just as in the 

West even the man in the street wants to 

22 



MY MASTER 

trace his descent from some robber-baron 
of the Middle Ages, so in India even an 
Emperor on the throne wants to trace his 
descent from some beggar-sage in the for- 
est, from a man who wore the bark of a tree, 
lived upon the fruits of the forest and com- 
muned with God. That is the type of de- 
scent we want, and while holiness is thus 
supremely venerated, India cannot die. 

It was while reforms of various kinds 
were being inaugurated in India, that a 
child was born of poor Brahmin parents on 
the 20th of February, 1835, ' m one °f the re ~ 
mote villages of Bengal. The father and 
mother w T ere very orthodox people. The 
life of a really orthodox Brahmin is one of 
continuous renunciation. Very few things 
can he do, and over and beyond them the 
orthodox Brahmin must not occupy him- 
self with any secular business. At the same 

time he must not receive gifts from every- 

23 



MY MASTER 

body. You may imagine how rigorous 
that life becomes. You have heard of the 
Brahmins and their priest-craft many times, 
but very few of you have ever stopped to 
ask what makes this wonderful band of men 
the rulers of their fellows. They are the 
poorest of all the classes invthe country, and 
the secret of their power lies in their renun- 
ciation. They never covet wealth. Theirs 
is the poorest priesthood in the world, and 
therefore the most powerful. Even in this 
poverty, a Brahmin's wife will never allow 
a poor man to pass through the village 
without giving him something to eat. That 
is considered the highest duty of the mother 
in India; and because she is the mother it 
is her duty to be served last; she must see 
that everyone is served before her turn 
comes. That is why the mother is regarded 
as God in India. This particular woman, 

the mother of our present subject, was the 

24 



MY MASTER 

very type of a Hindu mother. The higher 
the caste the greater the restrictions. The 
lowest caste people can eat and drink any- 
thing they like, but as men rise in the social 
scale more and more restrictions come, and 
when they reach the highest caste the Brah- 
min, the hereditary priesthood of India, 
their lives, as I have said, are very much 
circumscribed. Compared to western man- 
ners their lives are of continuous asceti- 
cism. But they have great steadiness; when 
they get hold of an idea they carry it out to 
its very conclusion, and they keep hold of it 
generation after generation until they make 
something out of it. Once give them an 
idea and it is not easy to take it back again, 
but it is hard to make them grasp a new 
idea. 

The orthodox Hindus therefore, are very 
exclusive, living entirely within their own 
horizon of thought and feeling. Their lives 

25 



MY MASTER 

are laid down in our old books in every lit- 
tle detail, and the least detail is grasped 
with almost adamantine firmness by them. 
They would starve rather than eat a meal 
cooked by the hands of a man not belong- 
ing to their own small section of caste. But 
withal, they have intensity and tremendous 
earnestness. That force of intense faith 
and religious life occurs often among the 
orthodox Hindus, because their very ortho- 
doxy comes from the tremendous convic- 
tion that it is right. We may not all think 
that that to which they hold on with such 
perseverance is right, but to them it is. 
Now it is w T ritten in our books that a man 
should always be charitable even to the ex- m 

treme. If a man starves himself to death to 
help another man, to save that man's life, it 
is all right; it is even held that a man ought 
to do that. And it is expected of a Brah- 
min to carry this idea out to the very ex- 

26 



MY MASTER 

treme. Those who are acquainted with the 
literature of India will remember a beauti- 
ful old story about this extreme charity, 
how a whole family, as related in the 
Mahabharata, starved themselves to death 
and gave their last meal to a beggar. This 
is not an exaggeration, for such things still 
exist. The characters of the father and 
mother of my Master were very much like 
that. Very poor they were and yet many 
a time the mother would starve herself a 
whole day to help a poor man. Of them 
this child was born and he was a peculiar 
child from very babyhood. He remem- 
bered his past from his birth, and was con- 
scious for what purpose he came into the 
world, and every power was devoted to the 
fulfilment of that purpose. While he was 
quite young his father died and the boy was 
sent to school. A Brahmin's boy must go 

to school; the caste restricts him to a 

27 



MY MASTER 

learned profession only. The old system of 
education in India, still prevalent in many 
parts of the country, especially in connec- 
tion with Sannyasins, was very different 
from the modern system. The students 
had not to pay. It was thought that knowl- 
edge is so sacred that no man ought to sell 
it. Knowledge must be given freely and 
without any price. The teachers used to 
take students without charge, and not only 
so, but most of them gave their students 
food and clothes. To support these teach- 
ers the wealthy families on certain occa- 
sions, such as a marriage festival, or at the 
ceremonies for the dead, made gifts to them. 
They were considered the first and fore- 
most claimants to certain gifts, and they in 
their turn had to maintain their students. 
This boy about whom I am speaking had 
an elder brother, a learned professor, and 

went to study with him. After a short time 

28 



MY MASTER 

the boy became convinced that the aim of 
all secular learning was mere material ad- 
vancement, and he resolved to give up 
study and devote himself to the pursuit of 
spiritual knowledge. The father being 
dead, the family was very poor, and this boy 
had to make his own living. He went to a 
place near Calcutta and became a temple 
priest. To become a temple priest is 
thought very degrading to a Brahmin. 
Our temples are not churches in your sense 
of the word, they are not places for public 
worship, for, properly speaking, there is no 
such thing as public worship in India. 
Temples are erected mostly by rich persons 
as a meritorious religious act. 

If a man has much property he wants to 
build a temple. In that he puts a symbol 
or an image of an Incarnation of God, and 
dedicates it to worship in the name of God. 

The worship is akin to that which is con- 

29 



MY MASTER 

ducted in Roman Catholic churches, very 
much like the Mass, reading certain sen- 
tences from the Sacred Books, waving a 
light before the image, and treating the 
image in every respect as we treat a great 
man. This is all that is done in the temple. 
The man who goes to a temple is not con- 
sidered thereby a better man than he who 
never goes. More properly the latter is 
considered the more religious man, for re- 
ligion in India is to each man his own pri- 
vate affair and all his worship is conducted 
in the privacy of his own home. It has been 
held from the most ancient times in our 
country that it is a degenerating occupa- 
tion to become a temple priest. There is 
another idea behind it, that, just as with ed- 
ucation, but in a far more intense sense with 
religion, the fact that temple priests take 
fees for their work is making merchandise 
of sacred things. So you may imagine the 

30 



MY MASTER 

feelings of that boy when he was forced 
through poverty to take up the only occu- 
pation open to him, that of a temple priest. 
There have been various poets in Bengal 
whose songs have passed down to the peo- 
ple; they are sung in the streets of Calcutta 
and in every village. Most of these are re- 
ligious songs, and their one central idea, 
which is perhaps peculiar to the religions of 
India, is the idea of realization. There is 
not a book in India on religion which does 
not breathe this idea. Man must realize 
God, feel God, see God, talk to God. That 
is religion. The Indian atmosphere is full 
of stories of saintly persons having visions 
of God. Such doctrines form the basis of 
their religion; and all these ancient books 
and scriptures are the writings of persons 
who came into direct contact with spiritual 
facts. These books were not written for the 
intellect, nor can any reasoning understand 

31 



MY MASTER 

them, because they have been written by 
men who have seen the things of which they 
write, and they can be understood only by 
men who have raised themselves to the 
same height. They say there is such a 
thing as realization even in this life, and it 
is open to everyone, and religion begins 
with the opening of this faculty, if I may 
call it so. This is the central idea in all re- 
ligions and this is why we may find one man 
w T ith the most finished oratorical powers, or 
the most convincing logic, preaching the 
highest doctrines and yet unable to get peo- 
ple to listen to him; and another, a poor 
man, who scarcely can speak the language 
of his own motherland, yet with half the 
nation worshipping him in his own lifetime 
as God. The idea somehow or other has 
got abroad that he has raised himself to 
that state of realization, that religion is no 

more a matter of conjecture to him, that he 

32 



MY MASTER 

is no more groping in the dark in such mo- 
mentous questions as religion, the immor- 
tality of the soul, and God; and people 

come from all quarters to see him and 
gradually they begin to worship him as an 
Incarnation of God. 

In the temple was an image of the " Bliss- 
ful Mother." This boy had to conduct the 
worship morning and evening and by and 
by this one idea filled his mind, — " Is there 
anything behind this image? Is it true that 
there is a Mother of Bliss in the universe? 
Is it true that she lives and guides this uni- 
verse, or is it all a dream? Is there any re- 
ality in religion? ' This scepticism comes 
to almost every Hindu child. It is the 
standing scepticism of our country — is this 
that we are doing real? And theories will 
not satisfy us, although there are ready at 
hand almost all the theories that have ever 

been made with regard to God and soul. 

33 



MY MASTER 

Neither books nor theories can satisfy us, 
the one idea that gets hold of thousands of 
our people is this idea of realization. Is it 
true that there is a God? If it be true, can 
I see Him? Can I realize the truth? The 
Western mind may think all this very im- 
practicable, but to us it is intensely practi- 
cal. For this idea men will give up their 
lives. For this idea thousands of Hindus 
every year give up their homes and many 
of them die through the hardships they 
have to undergo. To the Western mind 
this must seem most visionary, and I can 
see the reason for this point of view. But 
after years of residence in the West, I still 
think this idea the most practical thing in 
life. 

Life is but momentary whether you are a 
toiler in the streets, or an Emperor ruling 
millions. Life is but momentary, whether 

you have the best of health or the worst. 

34 



MY MASTER 

There is but one solution of life, says the 
Hindu, and that solution is what they call 
God and Religion. If these be true, life be- 
comes explained, life becomes bearable, be- 
comes enjoyable. Otherwise, life is but a 
useless burden. That is our idea, but no 
amount of reasoning can demonstrate it; it 
can only make it probable, and there it 
rests. Facts are only in the senses and we 
have to sense Religion to demonstrate it to 
ourselves. We have to sense God to be 
convinced that there is a God. Nothing 
but our own perceptions can make these 

things real to us. 

This idea took possession of the boy and 

his whole life became concentrated upon 
that. Day after day he would weep and 
say: ' Mother, is it true that Thou ex- 
istest, or is it all poetry? Is the Blissful 
Mother an imagination of poets and mis- 
guided people, or is there such a reality? ' 

35 



MY MASTER 

We have seen that of books, of education 
in our sense of the word, he had none and 
so much the more natural, so much the 
more healthy was his mind, so much the 
purer his thoughts, undiluted by drinking 
in the thoughts of others. This thought 
which was uppermost in his mind gained in 
strength every day until he could think of 
nothing else. He could no more conduct 
the worship properly, could no more attend 
to the various details in all their minute- 
ness. Often he would forget to place the 
food offering before the image, sometimes 
he would forget to wave the light, other 
times he would wave the lights a whole day, 
and forget everything else. At last it be- 
came impossible for him to serve in the 
temple. He left it and entered into a lit- 
tle wood that was near and lived there. 
About this part of his life he has told me 

many times that he could not tell when the 

36 



MY MASTER 

sun rose or set, nor how he lived. He lost 
all thought of himself and forgot to eat. 
During this period he was lovingly watched 
over by a relative who put into his mouth 
food Which he mechanically swallowed. 

Days and nights thus passed with the 
boy. When a whole day would pass, to- 
wards evening, w r hen the peals of bells in 
the temples would reach the forest, the 
chimes, and the voices of the persons 
singing, it would make the boy very 
sad, and he would cry: " One day is 
gone in vain, Mother, and Thou dost 
not come. One day of this short life has 
gone and I have not known the Truth. " 
In the agony of his soul, sometimes he 
would rub his face against the ground and 
weep. 

This is the tremendous thirst that seizes 

the human heart. Later on, this very man 

said to me: " My child, suppose there is a 

37 



MY MASTER 

bag of gold in one room, and a robber in 
the room next to it, do you think that rob- 
ber can sleep? He can not. His mind will 
be always thinking how to get into that 
room and get possession of that gold. Do 
you think then that a man firmly persuaded 
that there is a reality behind all these sensa- 
tions, that there is a God, that there is One 
who never dies, One that is the infinite 
amount of all bliss, a bliss compared to 
which these pleasures of the senses are sim- 
ply playthings, can rest contented without 
struggling to attain it? Can he cease his 
efforts for a moment? No! He will be- 
come mad with longing." This divine mad- 
ness seized this boy. At that time he had 
no teacher; nobody to tell him anything ex- 
cept that everyone thought that he was out 
of his mind. This is the ordinary condition 
of things. If a man throws aside the vani- 
ties of the world we hear him called mad, 

38 



MY MASTER 

but such men are the salt of the earth. Out 
of such madness have come the powers that 
have moved this world of ours, and out of 
such madness alone will come the powers 
of the future, that are going to be in the 
world. So days, weeks, months passed in 
continuous struggle of the soul to arrive at 
Truth. The boy began to see visions, to see 
wonderful things, the secrets of his nature 
were beginning to open to him. Veil after 
veil was, as it were, being taken off. 
Mother Herself became the teacher, and 
initiated the boy into the truths he sought. 
At this time there came to this place a wom- 
an, beautiful to look at, learned beyond com- 
pare. Later on this Saint used to say about 
her that she was not learned, but was the em- 
bodiment of learning; she was learning it- 
self, in human form. There too, you find the 
peculiarity of the Indian nation. In the 
midst of the ignorance in which the' average 

39 



MY MASTER 

Hindu woman lives, in the midst of what is 
called in western countries her lack of free- 
dom, there could arise a woman of this su- 
preme spirituality. She was a Sannyasini, 
for women also give up the world, throw 
away their property, do not marry, and de- 
vote themselves to the worship of the Lord. 
She came, and when she heard of this boy 
in the forest she offered to go to see him, 
and hers was the first help he received. At 
once she recognized what his trouble was, 
and she said to him: " My son, blessed is 
the man upon whom such madness comes. 
The whole of this universe is mad; some for 
wealth, some for pleasure, some for fame, 
some for a hundred other things. Blessed 
is the man who is mad after God. Such 
men are very few." This woman remained 
near the boy for years, taught him the forms 
of the religions of India, initiated him in the 

different practices of Yoga, and, as it were, 

40 



MY MASTER 

guided and brought into harmony this tre- 
mendous river of spirituality. 

Later there came to the same forest, a 
Sannyasin, one of the beggar-friars of In- 
dia, a learned man, a philosopher. He was 
a peculiar man, he was an idealist. He did 
not believe that this world existed in real- 
ity, and to demonstrate that he would never 
go under a roof, he would always live out of 
doors, in storm and sunshine alike. This 
man began to teach the boy the philosophy 
of the Vedas, and he found very soon, to his 
astonishment, that the pupil was in some 
respects wiser than the master. He spent 
several months there with the boy, after 
which he initiated him into the order of 
Sannyasins and took his departure. 

The relatives of this boy thought that his 
madness could be cured if they could get 
him married. Sometimes in India young 
children are married by their parents and 

41 



MY MASTER 

relatives without giving their own consent 
in the matter. This boy had been married 
at the age of about eighteen to a little girl 
of five. Of course such a marriage is but a 
betrothal. The real marriage takes place 
when the wife grows older, when it is cus- 
tomary for the husband to go and bring his 
bride to his own home. In this case, how- 
ever, the husband had entirely forgotten he 
had a wife. In her far-off home the girl had 
heard that her husband had become a re- 
ligious enthusiast and that he was even con- 
sidered insane by many. She resolved to 
learn the truth for herself, so she set out 
and walked to the place where her husband 
was. When at last she stood in her hus- 
band's presence, he at once admitted her 
right to his life; although in India any per- 
son, man or woman, who embraces a re- 
ligious life is thereby freed from all other 
obligations. The young man fell at the feet 

42 



MY MASTER 

of his wife and said: " I have learned to 
look upon every woman as Mother, bul I 
am at your service." 

The maiden was a pure and noble soul, 
and was able to understand her husband's 
aspirations and sympathize with them. 
She quickly told him that she had no wish 
to drag him down to a life of worldliness; 
but that all she desired was to remain near 
him, to serve him, and to learn of him. 
She became one of his most devoted dis- 
ciples, always revering him as a divine be- 
ing. Thus through his wdfe's consent the 
last barrier Avas removed and he was free 
to lead the life he had chosen. 

The next desire that seized upon the soul 
of this man w r as to know the truth about 
the various religions. Up to that time he 
had not known any religion but his own. 
He wanted to understand wdiat other re- 
ligions w r ere like. So he sought teachers of 

43 



MY MASTER 

other religions. By teachers you must al- 
ways remember what we mean in India — 
not a book-worm, but a man of realization, 
one who knows truth at first-hand and not 
centuries after. He found a Mohammedan 
Saint and went to live with him; he under- 
went the disciplines prescribed by him, and 
to his astonishment found that when faith- 
fully carried out, these devotional methods 
led him to the same goal he had already at- 
tained. He gathered similar experience 
from following the true religion of Jesus 
the Christ. He went to the various sects 
existing in our country that were available 
to him, and whatever he took up he went 
into it with his whole heart. He did ex- 
actly as he was told, and in every instance 
he arrived at the same result. Thus from 
actual experience he came to know that the 
goal of every religion is the same, that each 

is trying to teach the same thing, the diff er- 

44 



MY MASTER 

encc being largely in method, and still more 
in language. At the core, all sects and all 
religions have the same aim. 

Then came to him the conviction that to 
be perfect, the sex idea must go, because 
soul has no sex, soul is neither male nor fe- 
male. It is only in the body that sex exists, 
and the man who desires to reach the spirit 
cannot at the same time hold to sex dis- 
tinctions. Having been born in a mascu- 
line body, this man now wanted to bring 
the feminine idea into everything. He be- 
gan to think that he was a woman, he 
dressed like a woman, spoke like a woman, 
gave up the occupations of men, and lived 
among the women of his own family, until, 
after years of this discipline, his mind 
became changed, and he entirely forgot the 
idea of sex; all thought of that vanished 
and the whole view of life became changed 

to him. 

45 



MY MASTER 

We hear in the West about worshipping 
woman, but this is usually for her youth 
and beauty. This man meant by worship- 
ping woman, that to him every woman's 
face was that of the Blissful Mother, and 
nothing but that. I myself have seen this 
man standing before those women whom 
society would not touch, and falling at their 
feet bathed in tears, saying: " Mother, in 
one form Thou art in the street, and in an- 
other form Thou art the universe. I salute 
Thee, Mother, I salute Thee." Think of 
the blessedness of that life from which all 
carnality has vanished, when every woman's 
face has become transfigured, and only the 
face of the Divine Mother, the Blissful One, 
the Protectress of the human race shines 
upon the man who can look upon every 
woman with that love and reverence ! That 
is what we want. Do you mean to say that 
the divinity behind every woman can ever 

46 



MY MASTER 

be cheated? It never was and never will be. 
Unconsciously it asserts itself. Unfailingly 
it detects fraud, it detects hypocrisy, unerr- 
ingly it feels the warmth of truth, the light 
of spirituality, the holiness of purity. Such 
purity is absolutely necessary if real spirit- 
uality is to be attained. 

This rigorous, unsullied purity came into 
the life of that man; all the struggles which 
we have in our lives were past for him. His 
hard-earned jewels of spirituality, for which 
he had given three-quarters of his life, were 
now ready to be given to humanity, and 
then began his mission. His teaching and 
preaching were peculiar, he would never 
take the position of a teacher. In our conn- 
try a teacher is a most highly venerated 
person, he is regarded as God Himself. We 
have not even the same respect for our fa- 
ther and mother. Father and mother give 
us our body, but the teacher shows us the 

47 



MY MASTER 

way to salvation. We are his children, we 
are born in the spiritual line of the teacher. 
All Hindus come to pay respect to an extra- 
ordinary teacher, they crowd around him. 
And here was such a teacher, but the 
teacher had no thought whether he was to 
be respected or not, he had not the least 
idea that he was a great teacher, he thought 
that it was Mother who was doing every- 
thing and not he. He always said : " If any 
good comes from my lips, it is the Mother 
who speaks; what have I to do with it? ' 
That was his one idea about his work, and 
to the day of his death he never gave it up. 
This man sought no one. His principle 
was, first form character, first earn spirit- y 
uality, and results will come of themselves. 
His favorite illustration was, " When the 
lotus opens, the bees come of their own ac- 
cord to seek the honey, so let the lotus of 

your character be full-blown and the results 

48 



MY MASTER 

will follow." This is a great lesson to learn. 
My Master taught me this lesson hundreds 
of times, yet I often forget it. Few under- 
stand the power of thought. If a man goes 
into a cave, shuts 'himself in, and thinks one 
really great thought and dies, that thought 
will penetrate the adamantine walls of that 
cave, vibrate through space, and at last 
penetrate the whole human race. Such is 
the power of thought; be in no hurry there- 
fore to give your thoughts to others. First 
have something to give. He alone teaches 
who has something to give, for teaching is 
not talking, teaching is not imparting doc- 
trines, it is communicating. Spirituality 
can be communicated just as really as I can 
give you a flower. This is true in the most 
literal sense. This idea is very old in India 
and finds illustration in the West in the be- 
lief, in the theory, of apostolic succession. 

Therefore, first make character — that is the 

49 



MY MASTER 

highest duty you can perform. Know- 
Truth for yourself, and there will be many 
to whom you can teach it afterwards; they 
will all come. This was the attitude of my 
Master — he criticised no one. 

For years I lived with that man, but 
never did I hear those lips utter one word 
of condemnation for any sect. He had the 
same sympathy for all of them; he had 
found the harmony between them. A man 
may be intellectual, or devotional, or mys- 
tic, or active, and the various religions rep- 
resent one or the other of these types. Yet 
it is possible to combine all the four in one 
man, and this is what future humanity is go- 
ing to do. That was his idea. He con- 
demned no one, but saw the good in all. 

People came by thousands to see this 

wonderful man, to hear him speak in a 

patois, every word of which was forceful 

and instinct with light. For it is not what 

50 



MY MASTER 

is spoken, much less the language in which 
it is spoken, it is the personality of the 
speaker which dwells in everything he says 
that carries weight. Every one of us feels 
this at times. We hear most splendid ora- 
tions, most wonderfully reasoned out dis- 
courses, and we go home and forget it all. 
At other times we hear a few words in the 
simplest of language, and they accompany 
us all our lives, become part and parcel of 
ourselves and produce lasting results. The 
words of a man who can put his personality 
into them take 'effect, but he must have tre- 
mendous personality. All teaching is giv- 
ing and taking, the teacher gives and the 
taught receives, but the one must have 
something to give, and the other must be 
open to receive. 

This man came to live near Calcutta, the 
capital of India, the most important univer- 
sity town in our country, which was send- 

51 



MY MASTER 

ing out sceptics and materialists by the hun- 
dreds every year, yet the great men from 
the different universities used to come and 
listen to him. I heard of this man, and I 
went to hear him. He looked just like an 

ordinary man, with nothing remarkable 
about him. He used the most simple lan- 
guage, and I thought, " Can this man be a 
great teacher? " I crept near to him and 
asked him the question which I had been 
asking others all my life: " Do you believe in 
God, sir?" "Yes," he replied. "Can you 
prove it, sir?" "Yes." "How?" "Because 
I see Him just as I see you here, only in a 
much intenser sense." That impressed me 
at once. For the first time I had found a 
man who dared to say that he saw God, that 
religion was a reality, to be felt, to be sensed 
in an infinitely more intense way than we 
can sense the world. I began to come near 
that man, day after day, and I actually saw 

52 



MY MASTER 

that religion could be given. One touch, 
one glance, can make a whole life change. 
I had read about Buddha and Christ and 
Mohammed, about all those different lu- 
minaries of ancient times, how they would 
stand up and say, " Be thou whole," and the 
man became whole. I now found it to be 
true, and when I myself saw this man, all 
scepticism was brushed aside. It could be 
done, and my Master used to say: " Re- 
ligion can be given and taken more tangi- 
bly, more really than anything else in the 
world." Be therefore spiritual first; have 
something to give, and then stand before 
the world and give it. Religion is not talk, 
nor doctrines nor theories, nor is it secta- 
rianism. Religion cannot live in sects and 
societies. It is the relation between the 
soul and God; how can it be made into a so- 
ciety? It would then degenerate into a 
business, and wherever there is business, or 

53 



MY MASTER 

business principles in religion, spirituality 
dies. Religion does not consist in erecting 
temples, or building churches, or attending 
public worship. It is not to be found in 
books, nor in words, nor in lectures, nor in 
organizations. Religion consists in realiz- 
ation. As a fact, we all know that nothing 
will satisfy us until we know the truth for 
ourselves. However we may argue, how- 
ever much we may hear, but one thing will 
satisfy us, and that is our own realization, 
and such an experience is possible for every 
one of us, if we will only try. The first ideal 
of this attempt to realize religion is that of 
renunciation. As far as we can, we must 
give up. Light and darkness, enjoyment of 
the world and enjoyment of God will never 
go together. " Ye cannot serve God and 
Mammon." 

The second idea that I learned from my 
Master, and which is perhaps the most 

54 



MY MASTER 

vital, is the wonderful truth that the re- 
ligions of the world are not contradictory 
nor antagonistic; they are but various 
phases of One Eternal Religion. One In- 
finite Religion existed all through eternity 
and will ever exist, and this Religion is ex- 
pressing itself in various countries, in va- 
rious ways. Therefore we must respect all 
religions and we must try to accept them 
all as far as we can. Religions manifest 
themselves not only according to race and 
geographical position, but according to in- 
dividual powers. In one man religion is 
manifesting itself as intense activity, as 
work. In another it is manifesting itself as 
intense devotion, in yet another as mysti- 
cism, in others as philosophy, and so forth. 
It is wrong when we say to others: " Your 
methods are not right/' To learn this cen- 
tral secret that the Truth may be one and 

yet many at the same time, that we may 

55 



MY MASTER 

have different visions of the same Truth 
from different standpoints, is exactly what 
must be done. Then, instead of antagon- 
ism to anyone, we shall have infinite sym- 
pathy with all. Knowing that as long as 
there are different natures born into this 
world they will require different applica- 
tions of the same religious truths, we shall 
understand that we are bound to have for- 
bearance with each other. Just as nature 
is unity in variety, an infinite variation in 
the phenomenal, and behind all these vari- 
ations, the Infinite, the Unchangeable, the 
Absolute, so it is with every man; the mi- 
crocosm is but a miniature repetition of the 
macrocosm; in spite of all these variations, 
in and through them all runs this eternal 
harmony, and we have to recognize this. 
This idea, above all other ideas, I find to be 
the crying necessity of the day. Coming 
from a country which is a hotbed of re- 

56 



MY MASTER 

ligious sects — through good fortune or ill 
fortune, everyone who has a religious idea 
wants to send an advance guard there — 
from my childhood I have been acquainted 
with the various sects of the world; even 
the Mormons came 'to preach in India. 
Welcome them all! That is the soil on 
which to preach religion. There it takes 
root more than in any other country. If 
you come and teach politics to the Hindus 
they do not understand, but if you come to 
preach religion, however curious it may be, 
you will have hundreds and thousands of 
followers. in no time, and you have every 
chance of becoming a living god in your 
life time. I am glad it is so, it is the one 
thing we want in India. The sects among 
the Hindus are various, almost infinite in 
number, and some of them apparently 
hopelessly contradictory. Yet they all tell 
you they are but different manifestations of 

57 



MY MASTER 

Religion. " As different rivers, taking their 
start from different mountains, running 
crooked or straight, all come and mingle 
their waters in the ocean, so the different 
sects, with their different points of view, 
at last all come unto Thee." This is 
not a theory, it has to be recognized, 
but not in that patronizing way which we 
see with some. " Oh, yes, there are some 
very good things." (Some even have the 
most wonderfully liberal idea that other re- 
ligions are all little bits of a prehistoric 
evolution, but " ours is the fulfilment of 
things.") One man says because his is the 
oldest religion it is the best; another makes 
the same claim because his is the latest. 
We have to recognize that each one of them 
has the same saving power as every other. 
It is a mass of superstition that you have 
heard everywhere, either in the temple or 

the church, that there is any difference. 

58 



MY MASTER 

The same God answers all, and it is not 
you, nor I, nor any body of men, that is re- 
sponsible for the safety and salvation of the 
least little bit of the soul; the same Al- 
mighty God is responsible for all of them. 
I do not understand how people declare 
themselves to be believers in God, and at 
the same time think that God has handed 
over to a little body of men all truth, and 
that they are the guardians of the rest of 
humanity. Do not try to disturb the faith 
of any man. If you can give him some- 
thing better, if you can get hold of a man 
where he stands and give him a push up- 
wards, do so, but do not destroy what he 
has. The only true teacher is he who can 
convert himself as it were, into a thousand 
persons at a moment's notice. The only 
true teacher is he who can immediately 
come down to the level of the student, and 
transfer his soul to the student's soul and 

59 



MY MASTER 

see through the student's eyes and hear 
through his ears and understand through 
his mind. Such a teacher can really teach 
and none else. All these negative, break- 
ing-down, destructive teachers that are in 
the world can never do any good. 

In the presence of my Master I found out 
that man could be perfect, even in this body. 
Those lips never cursed anyone, never even 
criticised anyone. Those eyes were beyond 
the possibility of seeing evil, that mind had 
lost the power of thinking evil. He saw 
nothing but good. That tremendous 
purity, that tremendous renunciation is 
the one secret of spirituality. " Neither 
through wealth, nor through progeny, but 
through renunciation alone, is immortality 
to be reached," say the Vedas. " Sell all 
that thou hast and give to the poor, and fol- 
low me," says the Christ. 

So all great saints and prophets have ex- 

60 



MY MASTER 

pressed it, and have carried it out in their 
lives. How can great spirituality come 

without that renunciation? Renunciation 
is the background of all religious thought 

wherever it be, and you will always find that 
as this idea of renunciation lessens, the 
more will the senses creep into the field of 
religion, and spirituality will decrease in the 
same ratio. That man was the embodiment 
of renunciation. In our country it is neces- 
sary for a man who becomes a Sannyasin to 
give up all worldly wealth and position, and 
this my Master carried out literally. There 
were many who would have felt themselves 
blest, if he would only have accepted a pres- 
ent from their hands, who would gladly 
have given him thousands if he would have 
taken them, but these were the only men 
from whom he would turn away. He was 
a triumphant example, a living realization 
of the complete conquest of lust and desire 

61 



MY MASTER 

for money. He was beyond all ideas of 
either, and such men are necessary for this 
century. Such renunciation is necessary in 
these days when men have begun to think 
that they cannot live a month without what 
they call their " necessities," and which 
they are increasing in geometrical ratio. It 
is necessary in a time like this that a man 
shall arise to demonstrate to the sceptics of 
the world that there yet breathes a man who 
does not care a straw for all the gold or all 
the fame that is in the universe. Yet there 
are such men. 

The first part of my Master's life was 
spent in acquiring spirituality, and the re- 
maining years in distributing it. Men came 
in crowds to hear him and he would talk 
twenty hours in the twenty-four, and that 
not for one day, but for. months and 
months, until at last the body broke down 

under the pressure of this tremendous 

62 



MY MASTER 

strain. His intense love for mankind would 
not let him refuse to. help even the humblest 
of the thousands who sought his aid. 
Gradually there developed a vital throat 
disorder and yet he could not be persuaded 
to refrain from these exertions. As soon 
as he heard that people were asking to see 
him he would insist upon having them ad- 
mitted and would answer all their ques- 
tions. There was no rest for him. Once a 
man asked him: " Sir, you are a great 
Yogi, why do you not put your mind a lit- 
tle on your body and cure your disease? " 
At first he did not answer, but when the 
question had been repeated he gently said: 
" My friend, I have thought you were a 
sage, but you talk like other men of the 
world. This mind has been given to the 
Lord, do you mean to say that I should 
take it back and put it upon the body which 
is but a mere cage of the soul? " 

63 



MY MASTER 

So he went on preaching to the people, 
and the news spread that his body was 
about to pass away, and the people began 
to flock to him in greater crowds than ever. 
You cannot imagine the way they come to 
these great religious teachers in India, 
crowd around them and make gods of them 
while they are yet living. Thousands are 
ready to touch simply the hem of their gar- 
ments. It is through this appreciation of 
spirituality in others that spirituality is pro- 
duced. Whatever any man wants and ap- 
preciates, that he will get, and it is the same 
with nations. If you go to India and deliver 
a political lecture, however grand it may be, 
you will scarcely find people to listen to 
you, but just go and teach religion, live it, 
not merely talk it, and hundreds will crowd 
just to look at you, to touch your feet. 
When the people heard that this holy man 
was likely to go from them soon, they be- 

64 



MY MASTER 

gan to come around him. more than ever 
before, and my Master went on teaching 
them without the least regard for his health. 
We could not prevent this. Many of the 
people came from long distances, and he 
would not rest until he had answered their 
questions. " While I can speak I must 
teach them," he would say, and he was as 
good as his word. One day he told us that 
he would lay down the body that day, and 
repeating the most sacred word of the 
Vedas he entered into Samadhi and so 
passed away. 

His thoughts and his message were 
known to very few who were capable of 
teaching them. Among others, he left a 
few young boys who had renounced the 
world, and were ready to carry on his 
work. Attempts were made to crush them. 
But they stood firm, having the inspiration 
of that great life before them. Having had 

65 



MY MASTER 

the contact of that blessed life for years, 
they stood their ground. These young men 
were living as Sannyasins, begging through 
the streets of the city where they were born, 
although some of them came from first- 
class families. At first they met with great 
antagonism, but they persevered and went 
on from day to day spreading all over In- 
dia the message of that great man, until the 
whole country was filled with the ideas he 
had preached. This man from a remote vil- 
lage of Bengal, without education, simply 
by the sheer force of his own determination, 
realized the truth and gave it to others, 
leaving only a few young boys to keep it 
alive. 

Today the name of Sri Ramakrishna Pa- 
ramhamsa is known all over India with its 
millions of people. Nay, the power of that 
man has spread beyond India, and if there 
has ever been a word of truth, a word of 

66 



MY MASTER 

spirituality that I have spoken anywhere in 
the world, I owe it to my Master; only the 
mistakes are mine. 

This is the message of Sri Ramakrishna 
to the modern world. :< Do not care for 
doctrines, do not care for dogmas, or sects, 
or churches or temples; they count for lit- 
tle compared with the essence of existence 
in each man which is spirituality, and the 
more that this is developed in a man, the 
more powerful is he for good. Earn that 
first, acquire that, and criticise no one, for 
all doctrines and creeds have some good in 
them. Show by your lives that religion 
does not mean words, nor names, nor sects, 
but that it means spiritual realization. 
Only those can understand who have felt. 
Only those that have attained to spiritual- 
ity can communicate it to others, can be 
great teachers of mankind. They alone are 

the powers of light." 

67 



MY MASTER 

The more such men are produced in a 
country, the more that country will 6e 
raised; and that country where such men 
absolutely do not exist is simply doomed, 
nothing can save it. Therefore, my Mas- 
ter's message to mankind is, " Be spirit- 
ual and realize truth for yourself." He 
would have you give up for the sake of your 
fellow beings. He would have you cease 
talking about love for your brother, and set 
to work to prove your words. The time 
has come for renunciation, for realization, 
and then you will see the harmony in all the 
religions of the world. You will know that 
there is no need of any quarrel, and then 
only will you be ready to help humanity. 
To proclaim and make clear the fundamen- 
tal unity underlying all religions was the 
mission of my Master. Other teachers have 
taught special religions which bear their 
names, but this great Teacher of the nine- 

68 



MY MASTER 

teenth century made no claim for himself 
he left every religion undisturbed because 
he had realized that, in reality, they are all 
part and parcel of one Eternal Religion. 

69 



PARAMHAMSA SRIMAT RAMAKRISHNA 

The following brief account of this extraordi- 
nary man is taken from an article written by Pro- 
tap Chunder Mazoomdar, which appeared in the 
Theistic Quarterly Review, October, 1879. It 
serves to show the sentiments he inspired among 
his contemporaries. Even the celebrated leader 
of the Brahmo-Somaj, Keshub Chandra Sen, often 
came to hear Sri Ramakrishna and was influenced 
by his teachings to a considerable extent. He 
was born on the 20th of February, 1833. He left 

this world on the 16th of August, 1886. 

70 



PARAMHAMSA SRIMAT RAMAKRISHNA 

]\A Y mind is still floating in the luminous 
atmosphere which that wonderful 
man diffuses around him whenever and 
wherever he goes. My mind is not yet dis- 
enchanted of the mysterious and indefinable 
pathos which he pours into it whenever he 
meets me. What is there in common be- 
tween him, and me? I, a Europeanized, civ- 
ilized, self-centered, semi-sceptical, so-called 
educated reasoner, and he a poor, illiter- 
ate, unpolished, half-idolatrous, friendless 
Hindu devotee? Why should I sit long 
hours to attend to him, I who have listened 
to Disraeli and Fawcett, Stanley and Max 
Miiller, and a whole host of European 
scholars and divines? I who am an ardent 
disciple and follower of Christ, a friend and 

71 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

admirer of liberal-minded Christian mis- 
sionaries and preachers, a devoted adherent 
and worker of the rationalistic Brahmo- 
Somaj — why should I be spellbound to hear 
him? And it is not I only, but dozens like 
me who do the same. He has been inter- 
viewed and examined by many, crowds 
pour in to visit and talk with him. Some of 
our clever intellectual fools have found 
nothing in him, some of the contemptuous 
Christian missionaries would call him an im- 
postor, or a self-deluded enthusiast. I have 
weighed their objections well, and what I 
write now I write deliberately. 

The Hindu saint is a man under forty. 
He is a Brahmin by caste, he is well-formed 
in body naturally, but the dreadful austeri- 
ties through which his character has de- 
veloped appear to have disordered his sys- 
tem. Yet, in the midst of this emaciation 
his face retains a fullness, a child-like ten- 

72 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

derness, a profound visible humbleness, an 
unspeakable sweetness of expression and a 
smile that I have seen on no other face that 
I can remember. A Hindu saint is always 
particular about his externals. He wears 
the garua cloth, eats according to strict 
forms, refuses to have intercourse with men, 
and is a rigid observer of caste. He is al- 
ways proud and professes secret wisdom. 
He is always guruji, a universal counsellor 
and a dispenser of charms. This man is 
singularly devoid of such claims. His dress 
and diet do not differ from those of other 
men except in the general negligence he 
shows towards both, and as to caste, he 
openly breaks it every day. He most vehe- 
mently repudiates the title of guru, or 
teacher, he shows impatient displeasure at 
any exceptional honor which people try to 
pay to him, and emphatically disclaims the 

knowledge of secrets and mysteries. He 

73 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

protests against being lionized, and openly 
shows his strong dislike to be visited and 
praised by the curious. The society of the 
worldly-minded and carnally-inclined he 
carefully shuns. He has nothing extraor- 
dinary about him. His religion is his only 
recommendation. And what is his religion? 
It is orthodox Hinduism, but. Hinduism of 
a strange type. Ramakrishna Paramhamsa 
(for that is the name of this saint), is the 
worshipper of no particular Hindu god. 
He is not a Shivaite, he is not a Shakta, he 
is not a Vaishnava, he is not a, Vedantist. 
Yet he is all these. He worships Shiva, he 
worships Kali, he worships Rama, he wor- 
ships Krishna, and is a confirmed advocate 
of Vedantist doctrines. He accepts all the 
doctrines, all the embodiments, usages, and 
devotional practices of every religious cult. 
Each in turn is infallible to him. He is an 

idolater, yet is a faithful and most devoted 

74 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

meditator of the perfections of the one form- 
less, infinite Deity whom he terms, " Ak- 
handa Sach-chiddnanda" ("Indivisible Exis- 
tence-Knowledge-Bliss. ") His religion, un- 
like the religion of ordinary Hindu sadhus, 
does not mean, too much dogma, or con- 
troversial proficiency, or the outward wor- 
ship with flowers and sandal-wood; incense 
and offering. His religion means ecstasy, 
his worship means transcendental insight, 
his whole nature burns day and night with 
the permanent fire and fever of a strange 
faith and feeling. His conversation is a 
ceaseless breaking forth of this inward fire 
and lasts long hours- While his interloc- 
utors are weary, he, though outwardly 
feeble, is as fresh as ever. He merges into 
rapturous ecstasy and outward uncon- 
sciousness often during the day, oftenest in 
conversation when he speaks of his favorite 

spiritual experiences, or hears any striking 

75 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

response to them. But how is it possible 
that he has such a fervent regard for all the 
Hindu deities together? What is the se- 
cret of his singular eclecticism? To him 
each of these deities is a force, an incarnated 
principle tending to reveal the supreme re- 
lation of the soul to that eternal and form- 
less Being Who is unchangeable in* His 
blessedness and the Light of Wisdom. 

Take for instance Shiva. The saint views 
and realizes Shiva as the incarnation of con- 
templativeness and Yoga, Forgetful of all 
worldly care and concern, merged and ab- 
sorbed in Samadhi, in the meditation of the 
ineffable perfections of the supreme Brah- 
man, insensible to pain and privation, toil 
and loneliness, ever joyful in the blessed- 
ness of Divine communion, calm, silent, se- 
rene, immovable like the Himalayas where 
his abode is, Mahadeo is the ideal of all con- 
templative and self-absorbed men. The 

76 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

venomous serpents of evil and worldliness 
coil around his beatified form but cannot 
hurt him. The presence of death surrounds 
him in various forms of dread and danger, 
but cannot daunt him. Shiva takes upon 
himself the burdens and cares of all the 
world, and swallows the deadliest poison to 
confer immortality upon others. Shiva re- 
nounces all wealth and enjoyment for the 
benefit of others, makes his faithful wife the 
companion of his austerities and solitude, 
and takes the ashes and the tiger skin as his 
only ornaments. Shiva is the god of the 
Yogis. And this good man, while expati- 
ating on the attributes of Shiva, would be 
immersed in the sublimity of his ideal, and 
become entranced, and remain unconscious 
for a long time. 

Then, perhaps, he would talk of Krishna, 
whom he realizes as the incarnation of love. 
" Behold," he says, " the countenance of 

77 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

Krishna as represented popularly. Does it 
resemble a man's face, or a woman's? Is 
there a shadow of sensuality in it; is thefe a 
hair of masculine coarseness? It is a tender 
female face that Krishna has; in it is the 
fullness of boyish delicacy and girlish grace. 
By his affectionateness, many sided and 
multiform, he won the hearts of men and 
women to the religion of Bhakti (Devotion). 
That Divine love can take the form of every 
sanctified human relation is the great mis- 
sion of Krishna to prove. As a loving child 
monopolizing all the fondness of the hearts 
of aged parents; as a loving companion and 
friend attracting the profoundest loyalty 
and affection of men and brethren; as an 
admired and adored master, the sweetness 
and tenderness of whose teaching and 
whose affectionate persuasions converted 
girls and women to the self-consecration of 

a heartfelt piety, Krishna, the beauty and 

78 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

depth of whose character remain still be- 
yond the reach of men's appreciation, intro- 
duced the religion of love into Hindustan. 
Then the good man would say how for long 
years he dressed himself as a cowherd, or a 
milkmaid, to be able to realize the expe- 
riences of that form of piety in which the 
human soul was like a faithful wife, and a 
loyal friend to the loving Spirit who is our 
Lord and only friend. Krishna is the in- 
carnation of Bhakti. Then in the intensity 
of that burning love of God which is in his 
simple heart, the devotee's form and feat- 
ures suddenly grow stiff and motionless, un- 
consciousness overtakes him, his eyes lose 
their sight, and tears trickle down his fixed, 
pale, but smiling face. There is a tran- 
scendent sense and meaning in that uncon- 
sciousness. What he perceives and enjoys 
in his soul when he has lost all outward per- 
ception who can say? Who will fathom the 

79 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

depth of that insensibility which the love of 
God produces? But that he sees some- 
thing, hears, and enjoys when he is dead to 
all the outward world there is no doubt. If 
not, why should he, in the midst of that un- 
consciousness, burst into floods of tears and 
break out into prayers, songs and utter- 
ances the force and pathos of which pierce 
through the hardest heart, and bring tears 
to eyes that never before wept under the in- 
fluence of religion? 

Anon he would begin to talk of Kali, 
whom he addresses as his mother. She is 
the incarnation of the Shakti, or power of 
God as displayed in the character and in- 
fluence of woman. Kali is the female prin- 
ciple in the nature of the Deity. She tyran- 
nizes over all tyrants. She brings down her 
husband low upon the ground, and places 
her foot upon his bosom. She charms and 
conquers all beings. Yet she is the mother 

80 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

of creation. Her tremendous power is a 
guarantee that she can save and protect her 
children, those that come to her as their 
mother, and ask the shelter of her feet. Her 
motherly solicitude excites the tenderest 
filial affection in the hearts of her devotees, 
and the inspiration of Ramprosad Sen 
which expressed itself in the most wonder- 
ful songs of filial piety ever sung, bears 
strange testimony to the reality and effect- 
iveness of the worship of Kali. The adora- 
tion of Shakti (which literally means Force) 
is, according to our saint, a child-like, 
whole-souled, rapturous self-consecration 
to the motherhood of God as represented 
by the power and influence of woman. 
Woman, therefore, has long been re- 
nounced by our friend in every material and 
carnal relation. He has a wife but has 
never associated with her. Woman, he 

says, is unconquerable by man except by 

81 



PAHAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

him. who looks up to her as a son. Woman 
fascinates and keeps the whole world from 
the love of God. The highest and holiest 
saints have been brought back to carnality 
and sin by the nameless power of woman. 
The absolute conquest of lust has been his 
lifelong ambition. For long years, there- 
fore, he says, he made the utmost efforts to 
be delivered from the influence of woman. 
His heart-rending supplications and prayers 
for such deliverance, sometimes uttered 
aloud in his retreat on the river-side, 
brought crowds of people who bitterly 
cried when he cried, and could not help 
blessing him and wishing him success with 
their whole hearts. 

He has successfully escaped the evil of 
carnality which he dreaded. His Mother 
to whom he prayed, that is the goddess 
Kali, made him recognize every woman as 
her incarnation, so that he now honors each 

82 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

member of the other sex as his mother. 
He bows his head to the ground before 
women, and before little girls; he has in- 
sisted upon worshipping not a few of them 
as a son might worship his mother. The 
purity of his thoughts and relations to- 
wards women is most unique and instruc- 
tive. It is the opposite of the European 
idea. It is an attitude essentially, tradition- 
ally, gloriously national. Yes, a Hindu can 
honor woman. 

" My father," says the Paramhamsa, 
" was a worshipper of Rama. I, too, have 
accepted the Ramayat covenant. When 
I think of the piety of my father, the flowers 
with which he used to worship his favorite 
god bloom again in my heart and fill it with 
Divine fragrance. " Rama the truthful and 
dutiful son, the good and faithful husband, 
the just and fatherly king, the staunch and 

affectionate friend, is regarded by him with 

83 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

the love and profound loyalty of a devoted 
servant. As a master the privilege of whose 
service is sufficient reward to the favored, 
faithful servant, as a master in whose dear 
and matchless service the laying down of 
life is a delightful duty, as a master who has 
w r holly enslaved the body and soul of his 
adoring slave, the contemplation of whose 
holy and glorious worth transcends every 
thought of remuneration and return, is 
Rama viewed by Ramakrishna. Hanuman, 
the renowned follower of Rama, is to him a 
model of a faithful servitor, a being who 
was devoted to his master's cause, inspired 
by such unworldly love and honor, such 
superhuman faithfulness as scorned alike 
death and danger, or hope of reward. So 
the other sin which he spent his life to be 
free from, is the love of money. The sight 
of money fills him with strange dread. His 

avoidance of women and wealth is the 

84 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

whole secret of his matchless moral char- 
acter. For a long time he practised a sin- 
gular discipline. He took in one hand a 
piece of gold and in the other a lump of 
earth. He would then look at both, re- 
peatedly calling the gold earth, and the 
earth gold, and then shuffling the contents 
of one hand into the other, he would keep 
up the process until he lost all sense of the 
difference between the gold and the earth. 
His ideal of service is absolute unworldli- 
ness and freedom from the desire of gain. 
He loves and serves Rama because Rama is 
the best and most loving master. The serv- 
ice of the true saint is the service of the 
purest affection and most unselfish loyalty. 
Some of the songs he sings expressive of 
this touching devotedness are exceedingly 
pathetic, and show how very negligent we 
often are. 

Nor is his reverence confined within Hin- 

86 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

duism. For long days he subjected himself 
to various disciplines to realize the Ma- 
homedan idea of an all-powerful Allah. He 
let his beard grow, he fed himself on Mos- 
lem diet, he continually repeated sentences 
from the Koran. His reverence for Christ 
is deep and genuine. He bows his head at 
the name of Jesus, honors the doctrine of 
his sonship, and we believe he once or twice 
attended Christian places of worship. 
These ideas at all events show the catholic 
religious culture of this great Hindu saint. 
Each form of worship that we have tried 
to indicate above is to the Paramhamsa a 
living and most enthusiastic principle of 
personal religion, and the accounts of dis- 
cipline and exercise through which he has 
arrived at his present state of devotional 
eclectism are most wonderful, although 
they cannot be published. He never writes 
anything, seldom argues, he never attempts 

86 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

to instruct, he is continually pouring out 
his soul in a rhapsody of spiritual utter- 
ances, he sings wonderfully, and makes ob- 
servations of singular wisdom. He uncon- 
sciously throws a flood of marvelous light 
upon the obscurest passages of the Puranic 
Shastras, and brings out the fundamental 
principles of the popular Hindu faith with 
a philosophical clearness which strangely 
contrasts itself with his simple and illiterate 
life. These incarnations, he says, are but 
the forces (Shakti) and dispensations (Lila) 
of the eternally wise and blessed Akhanda 
Sachchidananda who never can be changed 
or formulated, who is one endless and ever- 
lasting ocean of light, truth and joy. 

If all his utterances could be recorded 
they would form a volume of strange and 
wonderful wisdom. If all his observations 
on men and things could be reproduced, 
people might think that the days of proph- 

87 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

ecy, of primeval, unlearned wisdom had re- 
turned. But it is most difficult to render 
his sayings in English. 51 " 

A living evidence of the depth and sweet- 
ness of Hindu religion is this good and holy 
man. He has wholly controlled his flesh. 
It is full of soul, full of the reality of re- 
ligion, full of joy, full of blessed purity. As 
a Siddha Hindu ascetic he is a witness of 
the falsehood and emptiness of the world. 
His witness appeals to the profoundest 
heart of every Hindu. He has no other 
thought, no other occupation, no other re- 
lation, no other friend in his humble life 
than his God. That God is more than 
sufficient for' him. His spotless holiness, 
his deep unspeakable blessedness, his un- 
studied, endless wisdom, his childlike peace- 
fulness and affection towards all men, his 

* Prof. Max Muller has recently given a number of these 
sayings to the world in a volume entitled " Ramakrishna, 
His Life and Sayings." 

88 

LofC. 



PARAMHAMSA RAMAKRISHNA 

consuming, all-absorbing love for God are 
his only reward. And may he long con- 
tinue to enjoy that reward! Our own 
ideal of religious life is different, but so long 
as he is spared to us, gladly shall we sit at 
his feet to learn from him the sublime pre- 
cepts of purity, unworldliness, spirituality 
and inebriation in the love of God. 






89 



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